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A Farewell to Evernote

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I’ve been a big fan and loyal user of Evernote since it appeared as an open beta back in 2008. Over the last year, I’ve considered moving away from it.

Today, I’ve started doing so.

When I first started using Evernote, I had no idea what I’d do with it. I had less of an idea what it would turn into. In the beginning, it was a simple note-taking app. Years later, it’s still a note-taking app (albeit a much more robust one), but has become anything but simple, in my opinion.

I’ve always used Evernote as the main research hub for my creative endeavors. Each project was given its own notebook, and each notebook contained numerous notes. At first, it was all pretty wonderful. There were set locations for everything I need for a story. Research, photos, outlines and timeliness. It was all there, and the best part was that I could access it from my phone (which seemingly always changed), my laptop, or simply via the Internet anywhere.

I loved it. Loved it.

And then the Evernote devs gathered together and threw a whole lot of ambition into the platform. New user interfaces appeared. Work Chat capabilities showed up. What was once fast and simple suddenly…wasn’t. Evernote’s beautifully slim and functional former self disappeared into a bloated garbage fire that rendered it all but unusable.

Notebooks took nearly a full minute to load. Notes refused to open and began crashing applications. The interface became so convoluted that what once took a click or two to access now took four. The features I never used (such as Work Chat) began to get in the way, hindering my progress more than pushing it forward.

The final nail in the Evernote coffin came when paid tiers arrived. I’ve never been against developers wanting to make money. My Evernote needs didn’t require a paid tier membership, and that’s fine. My issue began when endless pop-up Prompts started aappearing every time I opened the app or visited the website.

Every single time.

If I’m going to opt for a paid plan, it’s not going to happen because of endless pop-ups. It’s going to happen because I want it to. When prompts keep distracting me from my work, an app is no longer useful to me.